Anger, apathy, anxiety and Salford's north-south divide

Anger, apathy and anxiety are the three ‘As’ which appear to define the mood of voters in Salford ahead of the local elections on May 4. The city is a microcosm of the age-old issue of the north-south divide which characterises much of the national political landscape and debate.

To the north of the borough, there is a ward like Little Hulton, where just 18.1 per cent of people eligible to vote bothered to rock up at their local polling station to put an X next to their favoured candidate's name. Move further south and you encounter the affluent area of Worsley and then Eccles and Monton where voter turnout was much higher - more than 33pc in one case.

That still sounds low, but in local elections, it tends to be the norm, unlike the much larger turnouts for general elections. This time, however, there is also the thorny question of voter photo identification. Voters must attend with photographic evidence of who they are [driving licence, passport, bus pass] and there are fears this will have a negative impact on turnout.

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So what’s going on? A walk round the Little Hulton District Centre and a chat to the people there gave a few clues. “I don’t vote,” said one angry man who wouldn’t give his name.

“I voted twice for the British National Party, and it did no good. They just keep letting people in. When I’ve had enough I’ll just sell my house and go and live in Spain.”

Moving swiftly on, I encounter Janet Hoey, 61, in a delightful little cafe on the main square. Janet runs the Cuppa For Carers charity, an organisation she founded several years ago after losing her husband to Parkinson’s disease.

“I don’t know if I will vote. I don’t feel Salford city